Mendoza Francisco J, Toribio Ramiro E, Perez-Ecija Alejandro
Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Cordoba, Cordoba 14014, Spain.
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Feb 10;14(4):590. doi: 10.3390/ani14040590.
Donkey medicine is gaining attention due to their increased use as companion animals, in shows, asinotherapy, etc. The increasing demand and unique aspects call for specialized care, requiring new information (physiology, infectious disorders, pharmacology, etc.). Since obesity is common in this species, hyperlipemia, metabolic syndrome and insulin dysregulation (ID) are common disorders in donkeys, in some cases with high mortality, either directly (multiorgan dysfunction) or indirectly due to poor quality of life (chronic laminitis). Donkeys have long-life expectancy and are often afflicted with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), a neurodegenerative and endocrine disease. Hyperlipemia is diagnosed based on high plasma triglyceride concentration in association with clinical findings and laboratory abnormalities from affected tissues (liver, kidney and pancreas). The measurement of resting serum insulin and plasma ACTH concentrations is the first step in ID and PPID diagnosis. In donkeys with clinical signs of ID (obesity or recurrent laminitis) or PPID (hypertrichosis, regional adiposity, laminitis and weight loss), where these hormones are in the normal or non-diagnostic range (donkey-specific cut-off values and reference ranges need to be established), dynamic tests are recommended (oral sugar test or thyrotropin-releasing hormone, respectively). Equine treatment protocols apply to donkeys, although pharmacological studies for most drugs, except pergolide, are lacking.
由于驴作为伴侣动物、在表演、动物辅助治疗等方面的使用增加，驴医学正受到越来越多的关注。不断增长的需求和独特的方面需要专门的护理，这就需要新的信息（生理学、感染性疾病、药理学等）。由于肥胖在这个物种中很常见，高脂血症、代谢综合征和胰岛素调节异常（ID）是驴常见的疾病，在某些情况下死亡率很高，要么直接（多器官功能障碍），要么间接由于生活质量差（慢性蹄叶炎）。驴的预期寿命长，常患垂体中间叶功能障碍（PPID），这是一种神经退行性和内分泌疾病。高脂血症是根据血浆甘油三酯浓度升高以及受影响组织（肝脏、肾脏和胰腺）的临床发现和实验室异常来诊断的。测量静息血清胰岛素和血浆促肾上腺皮质激素（ACTH）浓度是诊断ID和PPID的第一步。对于有ID临床症状（肥胖或复发性蹄叶炎）或PPID（多毛症、局部肥胖、蹄叶炎和体重减轻）的驴，当这些激素处于正常或非诊断范围内（需要建立驴特异性的临界值和参考范围）时，建议进行动态试验（分别为口服糖试验或促甲状腺激素释放激素试验）。马的治疗方案适用于驴，尽管除培高利特外，大多数药物的药理学研究都很缺乏。
